The houses Americans built before the introduction of mass-produced housing in the mid-19th century is an excellent way for students to begin learning about folk culture. Folk houses are those houses designed and built by people with no formal architectural training. The design of these houses is the product of generations of trial and error that usually resulted in structures well suited to local conditions and local resources. Consequently, houses built with factory-made 2x4 studs using balloon framing techniques are not likely to be of folk design and construction.
Folk houses also provide an ideal subject to practice using both observational skills and spatial thinking. Small details in the design of folk houses require a sharp eye and design features invite us to think carefully about cause-and-effect relationships between climate, economics, ethnicity, and even religion in the production of something as ordinary – but vitally important – as old houses. Folk housing elements from the four major regions are explored in the sections below.
Yankee
The northernmost US folk culture has its hearth in Boston, and it diffused outward across New England, and westward into the Great Lakes region. People who live in these areas were long called Yankees by Americans. The term Yankee is now sometimes used to reference any American, particularly by persons not from the US. However, to cultural geographers, the term is applied only to people from the northeastern reaches of the United States. Yankee cultural traces are easily found in New England, but it’s also the dominant relic subculture of many communities in the northern reaches of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Some areas of southern Michigan also fall within the Yankee subcultural region.
Figure 2-5: Manchester by the Sea, MA. New England Large House. Note the large central chimney and room addition at the rear.
The Yankee region fades quickly as you move west toward Chicago. There are several reasons why you don’t find much evidence of Yankee folk culture west of Chicago. First, because subcultures diffuse outward from their hearth, they suffer from the effects of distance decay, much like any other phenomena. Places distant from the Yankee cultural hearth in Boston were less likely to adopt Yankee practices in the first place. Secondly, many settlers that moved to the Upper Midwest (Minnesota, Dakotas, etc.) were less likely to share the British ancestry common among early settlers to New Englanders. Instead, Minnesotans and Dakotans were more often the descendants of German, Russian, Ukrainian and Scandinavian immigrants. Finally, by the time the European settlers began moving into the Upper Midwest in the early 19th century, many folk practices, including how people constructed houses, were beginning to be abandoned in favor of popular culture practices. So, not only will you not find a large supply of Yankee folk housing in the Upper Midwest, you won’t find much folk housing at all, because people rarely built houses themselves. Instead by the mid-1800s houses were more like to be designed and built by professionals who used non-local materials and were inspired by fashionable trends from Europe – all popular culture practices.
Figure 2-6: Keene, NH Temple Front House with attached barns. This house features a series of attached barns. Consider the dangers and benefits of this design strategy. Note the sap buckets hanging from the tree in the foreground.
The earliest inhabitants of New England, like the Pilgrims that landed at Plymouth Rock, were not Yankees. They were English, and for several generations, built houses using folk traditions brought from England. Because the weather in New England was far colder than it was in Europe, these colonists were forced to adapt to local conditions. Building supplies, economic conditions, and the political environment were all different, so new design features crept into home construction. Eventually, they built houses using local materials that were well suited to their new environment.
As the English settlers learned to cope with the harsh winters of the region, many of which were especially brutal during the colonial era, also known as the Little Ice Age, architectural designs evolved. New England Yankees built houses with steeply pitched roofs, massive central chimneys, and extra-large rooms. These features helped them stay comfortable during long, cold winters. The designs also permitted families living in these houses to continue to function as an economic unit during long winters. Families living in these spacious houses were often farmers, and the large houses permitted them space to complete indoors a variety of chores necessary to their survival, like preparing food, sewing, craftworks, etc. – even during a blizzard.
Figure 2-7: Keene, NH- Saltbox House. Note the asymmetry of the gable end roofline and large central chimney.
Yankee folk house types are mostly variations on a single floor plan featuring four or five rooms arranged around a large central chimney. The smallest version is called a Cape Cod House. Not surprisingly, it is very common in and around Cape Cod, Massachusetts. New England Large houses are also very common in the region. They are in many ways a two-story version of the Cape Cod House, which are a story-and-half.
Figure 2-8: Buzzards Bay, MA - Cape Cod House This model updated with roof dormers and a "mud room" to meet the demands of contemporary families adequately.
In the early 19th century, many built New England Large houses with the gable end facing the street, which gave it a more stylish appearance. Those versions are called Temple Front House and if an additional room was added to one side, the house was called an Upright and Wing. The later versions are more frequently found further west as popular style elements crept into the more purely functional design of New England folk houses of the 1700s. Yankees also built a model called a Salt Box House. Its odd name comes from the unusual, asymmetrical roofline that defines the gable ends of the house that mimic the side profile of boxes used to store salt in kitchens during the Colonial Era.
Mid-Atlantic and Midwest
Immigrants that settled Middle Atlantic states, like Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland were more likely to come from continental Europe (Germany, Scandinavia, Holland, etc.) than those early immigrants into New England and the Deep South. People of African ancestry also contributed to the development of Mid-Atlantic folk culture. Perhaps because this region had a greater diversity of cultural inputs than elsewhere, the Mid-Atlantic folk culture, and the Midwestern folk culture that evolved from it foreshadowed many elements (e.g., language, politics, religion) of what has become known as the “mainstream” of contemporary American culture.
Folk housing of the middle US evolved in the Middle Atlantic States. It diffused from the Mid-Atlantic westward into central Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa. Some also diffused southward toward the Carolinas as well. Good examples of Mid-Atlantic housing are easy to find in the Piedmont region as far south as Charlotte, North Carolina. Pioneers attempting to migrate westward from coastal Atlantic regions often found their route blocked by the Appalachian Mountains, and so turned south, settling in the Great Shenandoah Valley and into even Western North Carolina, where the settlers also adopted or invented elements of Upland South folk culture. The Appalachian Mountains became a somewhat permeable barrier to diffusion and these houses offer excellent evidence of historic migration patterns.
Figure 2-9: Chillicothe, OH, Hall and Parlor House. This house would have originally been two rooms wide. The extension at the rear would be a later addition.
Folk housing of the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest tends to be simple in design, and only two related house types are widespread. There were a few additional (log) types once, but they are largely extinct today. By far, the most common remaining folk house types from this region are the single-story Hall and Parlor house and its two-story cousin known as the I-house. Archeologists suggest that the hall and parlor, a two-room house might be the archetype of all European-based folk housing because evidence of this house design, both in terms of size and layout, is evident in archeological digs all over Europe. American examples of the Hall and Parlor house and I-houses are two rooms wide with gable end chimneys.
I-houses, are probably the most common folk house on the landscape of the Midwest and Piedmontregions. Reputedly, this house type was given its odd name by geographer Fred Kniffen after he noticed how common this house type wasin states that began with the letter I: Iowa, Indiana, and Illinois. You can find I-houses in urban settings, but during the 18th and 19th centuries, the I-house was essentially synonymous with “farmhouse” in the Midwest. This building can be read as evidence of membership in a vast agricultural middle class. Its unusual dominance on the landscape of the Midwest is a strong indicator of how many thousands of families owned prosperous farms during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The I-house can be read as an important landscape symbol that communicates volumes about the culture, economics, and politics of the region where it is so very common. The next chapter discusses how principles of Jeffersonian democracy influenced the distribution of quality farming lands among homesteading pioneers, and how those principles helped an agricultural middle-class to thrive.
Figure 2-10: Williamsport, OH, I House. This brick I house includes a porch but has no windows on its gable ends.
Upland South
In Southern Appalachia and parts of the American South, most European settlers came from England, Ireland, and Scotland. This region is known as the Upland South. Poor farming conditions in this region discouraged plantation agriculture and slavery. So, unlike the Lowland South, the Upland South’s folk culture has fewer African elements.
Figure 2-11: French Camp, MS - Cabin and Porch. This one room (pen) house is the foundation upon which more complex models in the Upland South are derived.
This is the “white” South, though it has never been devoid of black people. One might also call it the Hillbilly South, though some might find the term “Hillbilly” offensive in certain contexts. The Upland South is similar to, but distinct from, the Lowland or Deep South in a variety of ways. Because soils were frequently poor for crop agriculture and the region was somewhat isolated from principal trade routes, people of the Upland South have tended to be among the poorest Americans for generations. As a result, their folk dwellings were also modest and largely built of locally abundant hardwood timber.
The most basic Upland South house type is known as a cabin and porch. Essentially, it is a one-room house, cabin if it has a dirt floor, featuring an attached porch and a single chimney. Ideally, settlers on the Appalachian frontier constructed a one-room house upon setting up a homestead. If conditions proved good enough to remain in the location, additional rooms, called “pens” in the local dialect, would be added.
Figure 2-13: Mt. Pleasant, TN, Dogtrot House. This dogtrot was without porch and but was well restored and situated at a touristy plantation home.
Figure 2-13: Dubach, LA, Dogtrot House. This house was built of massive pine logs, raised on stone piers and featured a second half-story.
If the homeowner built a second pen (room), a second chimney for the new pen and connected the two pens with a single roof that created a central breezeway between the two rooms, then the building was called a Dogtrot House. The colorful name for this type of house seems to have come from the fact that a hound could walk, or “trot”, between the two main rooms of the house. The warm southern climate makes the central breezeway of the Dogtrot House an ideal “room” where family members could do chores or simply relax.
Alternatively, a single-pen cabin could be expanded by attaching the second pen directly to the first pen and sharing a single, central chimney. This allowed the homeowner to build one fewer wall, and use a single fireplace to heat both pens. This type of house, called a Saddlebag House, references the appearance of a packhorse laden with cargo bags.
Figure 2-14: Blackwell, VA: Saddlebag House. This house utilized a single, central chimney to serve both "pens". A lengthy veranda porch would have served the family as important living space. (Wikipedia)
Interestingly, most saddlebag houses do not have an internal doorway allowing people to pass directly between the two pens. Instead, inhabitants must go outside through the front doorway of one pen to enter the adjacent pen. Luckily, the weather is generally mild in the Upland South. Still, most Saddlebag Houses had a wide porch, called a veranda, to provide shade on sunny days and shelter on rainy days.
Figure 2-15: Melrose, LA. - Saddlebag Houses. These were once slave quarters and are located just within the French region of Louisiana, suggesting a diffusion of style from the Upland South into the Lowland/Creole region.
Lowland South
The area of the American South where slavery was more prevalent is known to geographers as the Lowland South. More colloquially, this area is known as the Deep South. The earliest Europeans to settle the region were English, but the Spanish and the French also settled parts of Florida and Louisiana. Far outnumbering Europeans though were people of African descent, brought as slaves to work in agricultural industries. In some parts of the region, over 90 percent of the population was of African descent. Many African cultural practices survived the ordeal of slavery and continue to have an outsized effect on the culture of the Deep South. Today, the legacy of these folkways remains strong, deeply influencing the religion, politics, language and the economy, especially in places most isolated from outside influences.
Figure 2-16: Central MS - Bald Cypress. The wood of these trees is prized in the Deep South for its rot and insect resistance. It is however quite susceptible to fire – which would make it less desirable where? Source: Wikimedia
The economic structures of the Deep South, deeply intertwined with the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow Laws, are reflected in the folk housing of the region. Unlike in the Midwest, where the most common folk house (the I house) was a substantial two-story home, or in New England where large comfortable houses were common, the Deep South featured only two types of housing - those custom-built for the wealthy and folk houses built by poor people. Houses built for the wealthy are rarely considered “folk housing” because they were generally designed by architects, often used non-local materials and do not regularly reflect local environmental concerns. Architect designed homes also reflect changing styles and fashions. The architectural “plans” of folk structures, on the other hand, were maintained only in the collective memory of ordinary people from the region and they evolved over generations to deal with local environmental conditions and local resource availability. Considerations for “style” are often minimal in folk structures, and where style elements are found, they reflect local or regional taste preference, rather than national or international taste preferences.
Folk housing in the Deep South, like New England, evolved to suit a challenging climate. Building techniques, before the age of electricity and air conditioning, attempted to minimize the effects of the oppressive heat and humidity of the Deep South. In the 18thand 19th centuries, folk builders also combatted termites, wood rot and flooding, by building many houses using pier and beam construction, a technique that raises the floor several feet above the ground on platforms of stone or brick. This strategy keeps flooring and framing from touching the soil, where the timber framing would quickly be destroyed by termites and wood rot. Pier and beam construction also allows cooling breezes to pass under the house – as well giving a place for dogs to nap during the day.
Figure 2-17: Key West, FL -Shotgun House. This house is raised on piers to minimize termite and wood rot damage persistent in humid locations.
The harsh climate also affected the choice of building materials. Where it was available, wood from Cypress trees was prized for building houses, and especially for roofing and siding material. Cypress trees grow in some abundance in swampy locations in the Deep South and so its wood is naturally resistant to rot and insects. Most houses though were built with far less durable Pine because it was widely available and very inexpensive, which helps explains why many examples of folk architecture in the South have disappeared from the landscape.
Figure 2-18: New Orleans, LA - Camelback Shotgun. This house features a second story at the rear of the house which maximizes interior space while minimizing taxes collected according to square footage facing the street.
Surely, the most common folk house of the Lowland South is the Shotgun House. The design was probably introduced to the US by African-Haitians via South Louisiana and Florida. Experts disagree about the origins of the colorful name, and no argument satisfies completely. One theory stems from the fact that if you open the front door, back door and the interior doors of a shotgun house, you can see all the way through the house. Theoretically, you could fire a shotgun through the front door and pellets would fly out the backdoor. Another theory suggests that English speakers may have misinterpreted the African-Haitian word for house, “togun”, as “shotgun”, and the mistaken interpretation stuck in the lingo of the region.
The design of the shotgun house is simple. Most often, they are one room wide, a single story tall, and three to five rooms long. This rectangular, Afro-Caribbean design was perfectly culturally pre-adapted the European long lot cadastral system commonly used to divide property in French Louisiana. (see Chapter 3 for more) Shotgun houses proved so versatile and utilitarian, they diffused outward to many other parts of the United States, where they can be found in many neighborhoods where large numbers of African-American migrated, or where “company housing” was built by industrial concerns to attract and retain workers. As they diffused outward, shotgun houses entered the realm of popular culture.
There are multiple variants of the shotgun house. Some families modified their Shotgun house by building a second, parallel shotgun house that shared a common center wall, roof, and porch to produce a double shotgun. Other families modified their shotgun house by adding a second story to the rear portion of the house, creating what is known as a camelback shotgun. Interestingly, these second-story rooms were only added to the rear portions of the houses in an attempt to avoid incurring additional property taxes in places where they were calculated by estimating the square footage of the house facing the street.
Figure 2-19: Monroe, LA - Shotgun Houses. These houses built closely together suggest that they were "company houses" for the railroad that once employed many people in this neighborhood.
Ethnic Folk Landscapes
There are a handful of locations in North America where folk landscapes reflect cultural practices of specific (non-Anglo) ethnic groups, rather than broader regional trends. These locations are often smallish ethnic enclaves, and each offers interesting clues into the cultural values and norms of the ethnicity that constructed them, as well as differences in the adaptive strategies used by the ethnic group versus the wider host culture. A discussion of these houses could easily be presented in the chapter on Ethnic groups, but for the sake of consistency, they are discussed below.
Franco-American Landscapes
A variety of landscape clues tell of the significant legacy of French speakers in North America. In addition to their habit of naming all of their settlements after a saint, and allotting farmland to settlers in narrow strips called long lots, the French built houses, barns and other structures unique in appearance and construction technique.
Figure 2-20: Vincennes, IN - This Creole folk house is in Indiana, one of the outposts of French settlement in the US. It has a flared roof, double ensconced porches and a raised foundation.
The French attempted to colonize many parts of North America, establishing settlements in the interior of the United States well before the British. Cities like St. Louis, Detroit, and Des Moines have French histories, but the heart of French settlement in the early colonial period was in Canada, especially in the St. Lawrence River Valley, Nova Scotia and along the shores of Lake Ontario. The British also claimed these territories, and the two colonial powers fought several wars for control of these regions. The easternmost parts of Canada, known as the Maritimes, fell under British control in 1710. French settlers in Canada, known as Acadians were allowed to remain, but most refused to sign an oath of loyalty to the British crown. Frustrated with the Acadian’s persistent loyalty to France, the British expelled thousands of French speakers from the Maritime Provinces in 1755. Known today as the Great Expulsion, Acadians were deported from Canada. Many moved to regions now within the United States, where they were often unwelcome. Some Acadians expelled during a subsequent wave of deportations migrated to Louisiana, another former French colonial possession that was controlled by Spain. The descendants of the Acadians are generally called Cajuns. Another group of French speakers migrated to Louisiana after a slave revolt in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) in the late 1790s. Many of the French-speaking descendants of these immigrants are call themselves Creoles.
Because many Cajuns and Creoles were isolated from outside cultural influences by the vast swamps of southern Louisiana, ensuring that many of their ancient folk practices survive today. South Louisiana can claim many folk-inspired practices found nowhere else in the world. Among the traditional practices that are unique are Cajun and Creole cooking, Cajun and Zydeco music, the Cajun French language and a variety of construction techniques and housing types. These distinguishing features mark South Louisiana as culturally distinct from the rest of the Lowland South.
Figure 2-21: Cutoff, LA - Creole Cottages, such as this one line the "River Road" that runs alongside the Mississippi River south of Baton Rouge. Note the pier and beam construction, and ensconced porch.
The scattering of French people across North America invited the invention of several folk house types. The Québécois, those that stayed and today dominate Quebec, developed unique folk adaptations to combat the harsh winters of Canada using local materials. The French who migrated to Louisiana built houses with similar features, yet altered them significantly to meet the needs of the very hot and humid South. This adaptation is an example of stimulus diffusion.
Figure 2-22: Natchez, LA - Restoration of this creole cottage revealed vertical timbers filled with bousillage.
The most common of the Franco-American house types is the Creole Cottage, also sometimes called the Grenier House. The most distinctive feature of the Creole Cottage is the built-in or ensconced porch. Unlike porch construction prevalent elsewhere in the South where porches are simply attached to the front of houses, ensconced porches are integral to the house (see images above). Many Creole Cottages are two rooms wide, with two front doors, but without an interior doorway connecting the two rooms. They are built using pier-and-beam construction, much like their southern neighbors. Early models sometimes used a post-in-ground or poteaux en terre construction technique in which builders pounded vertical timbers supporting the walls into the ground. This technique differs greatly from most log houses which are built with horizontally stacked timbers. Many French folk houses also feature walls filled with a mixture of dried mud and Spanish Moss called bousillage, that is similar to the earthen material used to fill wall cavities elsewhere known as wattle and daub.
Figure 2-23:Thibodaux, LA - This Creole church features many of the same design elements as French folk housing, including the galley porch and the gablet hipped roof.
There are several variations on the Creole Cottage common in Francophone America, especially where immigrants brought construction ideas from the Caribbean. Several things to look for are the common use of dormers, little windowed roof structures that allow light and air into the sleeping quarters in the “attic”. The French were also quite creative with roof construction. In addition to the common flared bell-cast roof, you can find a variety of hipped-roof construction techniques. The French were also fond of large gallery or veranda porches that sometimes wrapped around the entire house. Large floor-to-ceiling doors and windows were also common features of French-built homes, and these, like the other design features in the Deep South, were an adaptation to help residents cope with the heat and humidity of the region. Large, multi-windowed doors, especially when placed built side by side are frequently called “French Doors”, another example of a folk artifact that remains with us today.
Germanic-American Folk Landscapes
So many Germans came to the United States that today they constitute America’s largest single ethnic group. Germanic people came so early, and in such great numbers to America, their impact on the landscape is at once profound and sometimes hidden because so many German folk practices are today considered “American”, especially in the Midwest.
Figure 2-24: Yellowstone National Park, WY - This photo features "square notching" corner of a log house, with white chinking. A variety of chinking and notching styles were used across the country.
Germans and Scandinavians introduced several house types in the early colonial period, but the most common was the quintessential home of the American frontier, the log cabin, and its more permanent cousin called a log house. These simple structures were often built almost exclusively of wood because timber was widely available and metal nails were scarce during the colonial era. Log houses were built by stacking partially hewn logs horizontally upon one another. Corners were held tight by a variety of interlocking notching techniques. Cracks between logs were filled with a mixture of mud and plant material called chinking. Log buildings were so well adapted to the frontier resources and local climate conditions that other ethnicities adopted log cabin designs during in the 18th and 19th centuries. By the mid-1800s, log cabins had become an important national symbol. For several generations, American politicians would claim they were “born in a log cabin”. Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln and U.S. Grant were among those who proudly announced their log cabin roots. Think about why log cabins became a powerful symbol embraced by Americans.
Figure 2-25: Gettysburg, PA - A classic Pennsylvania forebay barn nestled against a small slope allows farmers to access at least two floors.
German farmsteads were also unique. The most well-known Germanic farm buildings are the massive Pennsylvania Forebay barns. Their size allowed farmers to complete many activities (animal husbandry, dairying, crop storage, food processing) in a single building. However, the size of these barns also made them immovable, unlike small the barns built by Scots-Irish farmers who were known to dismantle their barns to transport them to new locations when soils were exhausted. The permanence of German barns seems to indicate a far greater commitment to the long-term husbandry of farm soils than evident in other ethnic groups.
Pennsylvania forebay barns were frequently built into an embankment, allowing farmers to access both the animal pens on the ground floor and the threshing floor above. A hayloft generally occupied the top floor. The “forebay” is an extension (overhang) of the second floor over the ground floor, providing shade, and perhaps some protection from the elements for the livestock stabled on the ground floor. Pennsylvania easily has the greatest collection of barns in the US. Pennsylvania’s state government established a commission to inventory and protect folk landscapes, partly because they have become valuable tourist attractions.
Figure 2-26: Saint Augustine, FL - Several of the Spanish era buildings were constructed of coquina a locally available sedimentary rock, making this a folk practice. It turned out to be an ideal material for withstanding naval bombardment.
Spanish Landscapes
It’s sometimes easy to forget that the Spanish were the first Europeans to settle in the United States. Because Spain didn’t have the same dire population pressures as the Irish, British and Germanic peoples, they, like the French, migrated in smaller numbers than their European rivals to the US. Spanish influences are most obvious in the American Southwest, but they are also evident in a few places in Florida and Louisiana.
Founded in 1565 by Spanish colonists, Saint Augustine, Florida is the oldest town in the United States, predating the English colony in Jamestown by around 40 years. If you visit St. Augustine today, you will have no trouble seeing the impact of Spanish people on the landscape there. The massive Presidio (fort) is of a classic Spanish design. Several dozen well-preserved colonial homes also feature Spanish design elements as well, but since they are constructed from local materials, especially those made from the peculiar coquina stone, these homes qualify as Spanish-American folk dwellings, rather than Spanish houses.
Figure 2-27: New Orleans, LA. – The beautiful wrought-iron gallery porches on this building in the French Quarter were popularized during the period when Spain ruled Louisiana. Note the effective shade the porches provide to the building’s walls.
The Spanish also occupied Louisiana for several decades following the defeat of France in the Seven Years’ War. During that time, the Spanish greatly influenced the landscape.
Ironically, the graceful wrought-iron balconies that characterize numerous buildings in New Orleans’ Vieux Carré (old quarter), known by tourists the French Quarter, are actually Spanish. This part of town burned and was rebuilt during the period of Spanish occupation of New Orleans. It was the oldest part of town, which why it’s called the Vieux Carré, but when it was rebuilt, the buildings were constructed according to Spanish tastes – not the older French styles.
Figure 2-28: Natchez, LA –Above-ground burials are common in French settled areas, and mistakenly thought to be a product of high-water tables. They seem to be Spanish in origin, and have little to do with flooding.
The Spanish also probably introduced to the US the peculiar tradition of interring the dead in above-ground vaults. Because New Orleans is famous for these kinds of cemeteries, above-ground burial is often mistakenly associated with the French. However, historical and geographical evidence strongly suggests that the Spanish brought this burial technique to the New World.
Lots of people also assume that above-ground burials are a folk adaptation introduced to counter the threat of flooding in New Orleans, where shallow water tables and frequent rains are common. Clearly, this folk burial practice is well-adapted to swampy southern Louisiana, but historic geographers point out that that above-ground cemeteries also can be found in older Spanish settlements in desert locations, and on high ground where flooding is rare. The common element suggesting that above-ground burials are an ethnic practice rather than simply a folk practice is that they are found in many locations in the United States where the Spanish settled, but are rare elsewhere.
Figure 2-29: Los Angeles, CA - The Avila Adobe is reputed to be the oldest house in Los Angeles. It is remarkably cool inside, even on very hot days. It is a museum now on Olvera Street, a tourist district near downtown.
Spanish influences on the landscape are perhaps most profound in California. Folk houses in the American Southwest were mostly constructed of adobe, but the Spanish can only take partial credit for the popularity of Adobe houses. Clearly, buildings made of sun-dried mud bricks were popular in Spain, many indigenous people of the American Southwest and Mesoamerica also built homes in the adobe style before the arrival of the Spanish.
Figure 2-30: Fort Stockton, TX - This house built in the mid-19th century has fallen on hard times. Adobe bricks deteriorate when exposed to rain.
Adobe construction is ideal for people who live in desert and semi-desert, Mediterranean climates of both the American Southwest and Spain. The walls of adobe houses are generally several feet thick and windows are small. These design features insulate the interior from hot winds and the burning sun during the day. The adobe simultaneously stores the sun’s energy and radiates it into the house during the evening when it gets colder outside.
Traditional adobe houses usually have nearly flat roofs built by laying timber beams across the top of the walls. Generations ago, flat roofs were ideally suited to those living in dry climates because they helped homeowners catch rainwater or morning dew. Steeply pitched roofs also capture heat unnecessarily while wasting scarce lumber resources. Adobe houses would not be feasible in the rainier or snowy parts of the world. Mud walls need to be painted, or whitewashed regularly to prevent them from melting away during rainstorms. Flat roofs are vulnerable to collapse under heavy snowfall. Although infrequent rains are not a serious threat to well-maintained adobesin California, earthquakes destroyed most California’s once numerous adobe houses.
Figure 2-31: San Gabriel, CA - Missions like this serve as the inspiration for thousands of buildings in Southern California and beyond. There is a nostalgic romance associated with Mission Revival architecture. What does it signify to you?
Perhaps the biggest contribution made by the Spanish to the landscape of the US is not a folk architecture type, but rather an architectural style called Mission Revival. This style gets its name from the fact that it was used in the construction of the 23 Franciscan Missions built in California between 1769 and 1823. Though they were largely derelict by the time California became part of the United States, thousands of architects resurrected the look of the old missions and the Spanish Colonial haciendas to create a pop-culture style. Mission Revival style has been applied to everything from the simplest of homes, to fast-food restaurants, to major urban landmarks. Mission Revival is popular in part because it is evocative of California’s colonial history, but like many nostalgic symbols, it requires the erasure of the less pleasant realities of history – in this case the devastation wrought upon California’s indigenous people. Most people don’t really think about the genocidal horrors of Spanish colonization when they see Mission Revival buildings. In the popular imagination of most Americans, Mission Revival evokes notions of the leisurely lifestyles enjoyed by wealthy people living in upscale Coastal California cities, like Santa Barbara, Laguna Niguel or Carmel, where Mission Revival architecture dominates the landscape.
Figure 2-13: Mt. Pleasant, TN, Dogtrot House. This dogtrot was without porch and but was well restored and situated at a touristy plantation home.
Figure 2-13: Dubach, LA, Dogtrot House. This house was built of massive pine logs, raised on stone piers and featured a second half-story.
Figure 2-29: Los Angeles, CA - The Avila Adobe is reputed to be the oldest house in Los Angeles. It is remarkably cool inside, even on very hot days. It is a museum now on Olvera Street, a tourist district near downtown.
